Tulsa Relies on Home Runs to Snap Streak

The Drillers scored eight runs on four home runs to earn the five-run win over the Travelers.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 11:53 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa Relies on Home Runs to Snap Streak

Originally Published: Aug 5, 2010 10:56 PM CDT

Gerald Goodridge
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writers

SPRINGDALE, Arkansas -- The Tulsa Drillers’ bats came alive Thursday and propelled them to an 11-6 win over the Northwest Arkansas Travelers, snapping a four-game losing streak.

Charles Blackmon led the Tulsa (52-57) offense, recording six RBIs with two, three-run home runs – including one in the top of the ninth to give the Drillers breathing room going into the last half-inning of the game. Lars Davis and Bronson Sardinha chipped in with solo home runs in the second and fifth innings, respectively.

The Davis and first Blackmon homers gave Tulsa a 4-0 lead going into the fourth inning, the first of seven unanswered runs by the Drillers, who were up seven runs by the sixth inning.

Northwest Arkansas (66-44) scored its first run in the bottom of the sixth when Johnny Giavotella grounded into a force out allowing Anthony Seratelli to score.

The Travelers cut the lead to two runs in the bottom of the seventh. In back-to-back at-bats, Paul Orlando and Manuel Pina drove in runs to cut the lead to 6-3. Two outs later, Seratelli singled to bring Pina home to pull within three runs. Three batters later, a passed ball brought Seratelli home from third and cut the lead to 7-5.

Bronson Sardinha doubled in the third at-bat of the next inning to extend the lead to three runs, but Tim Smith would hit a soft single to center to bring Northwest Arkansas to an 8-6 deficit.

Tulsa got six innings of service from Christian Friedrich (3-6), who allowed only three hits and struck out three in his outing. Alex Caldera (3-2) gave up seven earned runs on nine hits in his 4.2 innings pitched.

The Drillers come back home to OneOK Field for a four-game home stand against Springfield.